OCR Text |
Show 6 Monday March 31, 2014 SPORTS UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS WEDNESDAY: Softball Utah @ Weber St. 2 & 4:30 p.m. Ogden FOOTBALL Utes find room for improvement Brandon Barlow STAFF WRITER Women's Tennis Utah vs. Montana 5 p.m. Eccles Tennis Center FRIDAY: Baseball Utah vs. Arizona 12 p.m. Smith's Ballpark Softball Utah vs. Oregon St. 6 p.m. Utah Softball Stadium Men's Tennis Utah @ Oregon 1:30 p.m. Eugene, Ore. Women's Tennis Utah @ Arizona 1:30 p.m. Tucson, Ariz. Track & Field Stanford Invitational All Day Palo Alto, Calif NCAA FINAL FOUR MEN'S BASKETBALL SATURDAY: Wisconsin vs. Kentucky 6:49 p.m. MDT Arlington, Texas Florida vs. UConn 4:09 p.m. MDT Arlington, Texas www.dailyutahchronicle.com Over the past few seasons, defense has carried Utah as its offense has experienced significant injury and inconsistency. If Saturday's spring camp action at Rice-Eccles Stadium was any indication, that may well be the case again in 2014. Throughout the day, the offense struggled to get much going on Kalani Sitake's unit. "I thought it was a good day," Sitake said. "Obviously, we got beat in the two-minute stuff. We made some mistakes and we had a freak play that happened, but other than that we caused three turnovers, so I thought we did a lot of good things." The freak play came during the beginning of the scrimmage when linebacker Gionni Paul and a few other players were defending senior wide receiver Dres Anderson on a pass. Paul nearly intercepted the ball, but bobbled it as he battled for possession with Anderson. After the defenders tripped each other up, Anderson took control of the pigskin and ran for a 6o-yard touchdown. The defense did take a hit Saturday that could present a challenge when things get going for real in the fall. Senior linebacker Jacoby Hale tore his ACL and it is unclear whether or not he will be ready to play by the end of August. Hale played in nine games in 2013, making four starts. Entering spring camp, he was atop the depth chart at stud linebacker. Sitake will be looking to freshman Uaea Masina to help fill the void left by Hale's injury. "I always thought he could be a starter for us, that he could always battle for a starting spot," Sitake said. "That is what it is going to come down to, is all the guys competing for spots, and he is no different. He is a guy that does have a lot of ability." Even though the defense had success Saturday, head coach Kyle Whittingham wasn't too satisfied with the defensive line. "Defensive line was not real good today," he said. "We are thin at defensive tackle and that is going to be the case all spring. We got four guys that we are going to add this fall that are not able to be here in the spring." Moving forward in spring camp, the offense still has to make improvement, but Whittingham and Sitake both are eager to see even more from the defense. Since a bevy of defensive players won't be arriving until fall, the coaches want to use this time to help the players who are here to improve. "We got to keep our guys polished up and see who these newcomers are," Sitake said. "We have a couple injuries here and there but that is life, that is life in football. Guys got to step up, show up and make some plays. For the most part I think we did some good things and our defensive line is going to be fine. I say this every year but that has never been a worry for me." b.barlow@chronicle.utah.edu CHRIS AYERS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Quarterback Travis Wilson winds back for a pass at a practice game last Saturday. BASEBALL Utah drops three matches to Cal Ian Smith STAFF WRITER The Utes' slump is reaching a dangerous level. Utah lost three games over the weekend on the road against the Cal Golden Bears, making that seven straight losses for the Utes. To make matters worse, Utah's latest loss on Sunday afternoon marked the team's nth defeat in its past 12 games. "We've had plenty of chances to win a couple of games here on the road, and we just didn't get it done," said head coach Bill Kinneberg. Game one on Friday was a battle that Utah ultimately lost, 4-2. Cal took a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning before the Utes stormed back, as freshman Max Schuman drove in two runs to tie things up. The Bears would not be denied, however, as they retook the lead in the bottom of the eighth frame and held it for the victory. Junior Mitch Watrous pitched 6 two-thirds innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and striking out five. He was relieved by freshman Dylan Drachler, who allowed two runs. In the second game on Saturday, the story was eerily similar BRENT UBERTY/The Daily Utah Chronicle Freshman Dylan Drachler watches a ball soar through the air at last week's game against UVU. to Friday's contest. Both teams scored four runs through three innings, and the score remained tied until Cal hit a home run in the eighth inning, taking a 5-4 lead. Despite it being a slim margin, the lead proved to be too much for Utah to overcome. Senior Zach Adams pitched 5 two-third innings before being replaced by senior Tanner Banks, who pitched two one-third innings and recorded one strikeout while giving up one hit and one run. He was credited with the loss and dropped to 1-4 on the year. Utah's offensive struggles were again on display, as it only managed five hits. As if things couldn't get more frustrating, Sunday's contest was the icing on that bad cake. The Utes finally got some runs, but still fell 8-7. Utah opened up a 2-0 lead after three frames, but the Bears scored four in their half of that inning. The Utes scored four runs in the fifth to retake the lead but Cal made some crucial plays in the sixth and seventh innings to steal the victory. Senior infielder TJ Bennett had the best day at bat for Utah with two hits and an RBI. Konnor Armijo also batted in two runs. "We had the lead in a couple of games," Kinneberg said. "It's disappointing that we're coming home without a win." The Utes moved their conference record to 0-9 and will return home to play Arizona this weekend in a three-game series. i.smith@chronicle.utah.edu NCAA yields inaccurate champions Sports Editor on't be mistaken by the headline you just read. The NCAA Tournament is the best sporting event in the world. A week and a half ago, I spent 26 hours over the course of two days doing basically nothing besides watching the second and third rounds of March Madness. I've written it before, but it's the most wonderful time of the year outside of December. That being said, the NCAA Tournament, or any tournament for that matter, is not the best way to determine which team is really the best. This year's iteration of March Madness is as good an example as any to illustrate this point. Take Sunday afternoon as a prime D See MCDONALD page 8 SOFTBALL Record drops 12-15 with game against No. 1 UCLA Bruins Dominic Garcia STAFF WRITER Utah had the chance to play spoiler this weekend against No. 1 UCLA, but left Westwood, Calif. with three more tallies in the loss column, dropping its record to 12-15 on the season. Despite the losses, the Utes slowly progressed seemingly every inning against the Bruins. "We played the number one team in the country," head coach Amy Hogue said. "We got better the entire weekend." In the first game on Friday, Utah was unable to put a run on the board, losing the contest 8-o. Right off of the bat, UCLA showed why it is the top team in the land, scoring seven runs in the first three innings. Adding on to that, the Bruin pitchers stifled the Ute batters, who only recorded three hits as a team. "We didn't really execute," said freshman Anissa Urtez. "When we would get runners on base, we wouldn't execute to get the run." Saturday saw a little more fight from Utah, but the end result was still the same as it dropped the game 13-3. After falling behind early, the Utes put three runs on the board in the fifth inning, led by freshman Hannah Flippen going 3-for-3 at the plate and knocking in a run. Regardless of the fact it gave up 13 runs, Utah scored three runs of its own against a Bruin team that boasts one of the most impressive pitching rotations in the country. "When you are facing a team that has an ERA of less than one, you gotta' try and figure out what they are going to pitch at you," Hogue said. "We needed to figure out how to chip them away." In Sunday's matchup, the Utes appeared to be in the "March Madness" spirit, as they were leading the best team in the country i-o going into the fourth inning. UCLA, though, was able to tie it up in the bottom of the See SOFTBALL page 8 |